12 Miles and a Little Christmas

In preparation for the Woman’s Half Marathon on December 10th, I ran 12 miles with Heather on Saturday morning. It’s been a while since I’ve run 12 miles, but it wasn’t bad at all…I actually enjoyed it!

 

I was grateful for the cooler weather, even though the temps did drop while we were running…and there was a light, nasty mist in the air.

If you’re from the north, you’re probably looking at these weather temps and shaking your head at me. For the south, this is cold…and it only got colder as the weekend went on!

An enjoyable run as always…the miles flew by as we chatted!

Here’s where I made an uh-oh. I never ever stop my watch on GoRun Saturdays when we stop for water, stop to chat with another runner, stop midway for GU, and I almost always forget to stop it at the end when we are finished with our run. (In this case, it stayed running for a good 8-10 minutes.)

I do know that the first mile was a 9:35 and we kept a pretty consistent pace the entire time….so if I had to guess, I’d say between a 9:35 and a 9:50 is a good overall average pace for us.

It’s been a habit for years…if I stopped my watch, I always always always forgot to restart it – so I quit stopping it. Oh well.

There is one thing I didn’t forget to do…..I did not forget to stop for Panera after my run! :0) I even brought breakfast home for Jason and he was exceptionally grateful.

For lunch, we ate at a local Mexican restaurant with my parents in celebration of Jason’s upcoming birthday (on Thanksgiving Day).

We also put up our tree. Sad star.

My favorite ornaments are the ones that were made in the Days of Christmas Store (Downtown Disney) during Marathon Weekend over the past few years.  Of course these ornaments were the first to go on the tree!

2010 Half Marathon, 2011 Full Marathon, 2013 Goofy Challenge

I’m proud of each and every one of these accomplishments. Disney was my first Half and my first Full and I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything in the world!

After all of the Christmas excitement at my house (2 days worth), I went to my parent’s house last night to help them decorate! (I’m a bit obsessed with this season if you couldn’t tell.)

It was fun re-living old memories with my parents and remembering where certain ornaments came from. These mall Santa photos crack me up. I was not impressed with Mall Santa on the bottom right. I didn’t want to take the picture because I was too old for all of that business (even though I was  wearing a Santa shirt…go figure), but I agreed because my brother wanted to take the picture. Aren’t I a sweet sister? Yes, I’d say so.

We had a great weekend and really enjoyed the extra special moments that made it a memorable one.

How was your weekend? Anyone run a race or a long run? Share the details!

----------------------------------------------------------

Don’t forget about the Spartan Racing giveaway happening right now! Ends Wednesday, November 27th!